


Capital Punishment (You're grounded)

by Friendlylycanthrope



Series: Let's Talk About It [3]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Adora still has some things to learn, Gen, It's what they deserve!, Let Angella be a good mom figure to Adora, Like expecting capital punishment for any minor infringement or inconvenience, Shadow Weaver | Light Spinner (She-Ra)'s A+ Parenting, anyway Shadow Weaver can choke, kind of fluff, short fic, takes place early in season one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:01:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23832040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Friendlylycanthrope/pseuds/Friendlylycanthrope
Summary: Adora knew that things were different in Bright Moon. She knew that the showers were private rather than public. She learned that there were no training drills to prepare for. She knew that most of the soldiers were volunteer. But she doesn't know what happens to soldiers who step out of line. Although she did know what happened in the Fright Zone, and if it was anything like that, she should do absolutely everything in her power to let that NOT happen to her or her new friends. For all of their own good.
Series: Let's Talk About It [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1714624
Comments: 5
Kudos: 154





	Capital Punishment (You're grounded)

The best friend viciously coughed up smoke which the room was filled with. Adora opened a window to the cool night air and Bow started fanning out the smoke wildly. Soon they were able to at least see in front of them again.

It was neither battle nor bravery that brought them to the flames. It was in fact, they who had caused the flames in the kitchen. 

It was during a sleepover after their last visit to Plumeria that the trio decided they would need some snacks. And realizing how little Adora knew of things like comfort food, they tried to make peanut butter cookies. And they had been working with greasy peanut butter a little too close to the pilot light on the stove, and burnt away all their hard work. Which is why they were presently up in the middle of the night, looking around at a room filled with smoke. 

“Oh man.” Glimmer said after a while. They looked at the counter where the pan was now covered in a hot black sludge and smoky scorch marks. Some of it was still on fire, despite how Bow was whipping at it with a towel to try and safely extinguish it. The spilled ingredients on the counter had the same gunk smoking on it. “We gotta clean this up, my mom is going to kill me.” A fire of determination filled Adora’s eyes as she took both of Glimmer’s shoulders in her hands. 

“We won’t let that happen!” She promised. 

“Okay so maybe we shouldn’t be cooking.” Bow said, throwing the towel over his shoulder now that the flames were officially out. “Next time let’s just do food that’s already made.”

They cleaned up the counter and the floor of their mess, and closed the window once most of the smoke had dissipated. But that still left their pan, which was the worst of all since it had the majority of the flames. 

They were just about to set themselves to scraping the hot, sticky coals to clean it, when the trio went rigid at the sound of footsteps in the corridor. 

“Crap,” Glimmer whispered urgently. “If we get caught my mom will kill us for this mess.”

“Do you smell that?” The person outside said quietly. It was likely a set of guards on patrol. 

“They’ll never know.” Adora said with the same determination as before. The other two looked back to see Adora halfway out the window, with the destroyed pan under her arm.

“Adora! This is the fourth floor!” Bow whispered back in a panic.

“Hey, is anybody in there?” The guard called. Then their hearts started racing as soon as they heard the doorknob wiggling. 

“We can’t get discovered. As long as you land right, you won’t break any bones.” And with that, she ducked out the window and fell down into the bushes perfectly. “Totally safe!” She called up as quietly as she could after, sounding only a little bit wounded and startled from the fall. In the same second that the door opened up, Glimmer safely teleported her and Bow out. 

“Adora, are you okay?” Glimmer asked. Adora was still picking some debris from the bushes out of her clothing, still holding the destroyed pan. 

“We had better retreat to safety before there’s any suspicion.” She said tactfully.

Agreeing, Glimmer teleported them all back to Adora’s room.

“Okay, we got out without anyone thinking anything of it. But do you think they’ll miss the pan?” Bow asked. 

“They might.” Glimmer said. “We could try to clean it up and return it before anybody realizes it’s gone!” 

“Bow, you heard what Glimmer said! We could get killed for this! We have to conceal any evidence.”

Adora picked up the sword of protection and transformed it into a spatula they could scrape the gunk off with.

“That seems kind of elaborate.” Bow said nervously. But there was no fighting against the crown princess and She-Ra. “Why don’t we just return it and apologize? I’m sure then we won’t get punished as much as if we get caught lying.”

Glimmer at least looked like she was considering it for a moment’s hesitation. But then she shook her head.

“No, I think we should do our best to clean it anyway.” She agreed with Adora again. Then, she leaned in to whisper to Bow quietly, “I think Adora is really worried about getting in trouble, maybe it’s a horde thing?” 

Bow could only nod thoughtfully. He hadn’t considered that Adora would be worried about getting in trouble after she, a horde soldier, came to Bright Moon so recently and so few people really trusted her. So, they all took turns scraping at the pan and trying to wash it as they talked.

But no matter how much they scraped, they were only able to partially remove the mess. It was still stuck on to the surface along with all the scorch marks. Even Glimmer was starting to lose hope when she realized how late it was getting. She looked at the black flakes scattered around the room. 

“Adora, it’s past midnight. I don’t think we can clean this and conceal the evidence of what we did.”

“Glimmer is right, we just need to apologize and it’ll be better than if we get caught lying.”

“No, we can’t give up! We’ll just have to make sure this is never discovered. Grab a shovel!”

“A shovel?!”

“We need to bury our shame so that nobody knows what we’ve done!” She then turned the sword into a shovel.

Which is why, to Glimmer and Bow’s high suspicion of their friend’s mentality, they dug a deep hole in the gardens to bury their shame. 

“Did we let this go too far?” Glimmer whispered to Bow, keeping her eyes on Adora.

“It’s possible?”

“Hey, who’s there? Show yourself, in the name of the Queen!” A guard was now jogging towards them with a lantern and a spear. Adora popped out of the hole with eyes wide in panic. 

“Guys! You were supposed to keep a lookout!”

“Adora, maybe we should just--” Glimmer started, but Adora pelted off in the opposite direction of the guard. Bow and Glimmer shared a worried look that seemed to communicate what they were trying to say to each other perfectly. With a nod, Bow went to the guard to explain and Glimmer teleported to try and catch Adora. By the time they had caught her, they could see the Day moon rising behind the whispering woods. The guard gave Adora a stern look of disapproval, and Adora couldn’t help but snap to attention, heels together, shoulder back, face betraying no emotion. But on the inside, her guts tied in knots and she could feel her heart beating in her ears.

Which is how she remained until they were escorted back to the castle, where they were met by General Abner with the Queen. Abner raised an eyebrow curiously. 

“Glimmer.” Queen Angella started sternly. Glimmer sighed tiredly. 

“Hey mom, I can explain.” She said with disinterest. At this point she just wanted to get to bed as soon as possible. “We wanted a midnight snack but it got out of hand.”

“I see.”

“Commander, it was my fault!” Adora interrupted. Bow bit his nails just seeing how on edge Adora was. “I will take the punishment for them! The sword will have to choose someone else more worthy!” Her brows furrowed together with determination despite her overwhelming fear. Everyone fell silent for a heartbeat before Glimmer spoke up.

“Wait, Adora… you didn’t think my mom would actually kill me, did you?” That seemed to catch Adora by surprise, which in turn caught everyone else by surprise. Angella instantly melted away her icy exterior when she looked at the warrior before her again, and saw the scared and confused child behind the facade. They seemed to be waiting for Adora to say something.

“I… I understand.” She said as though she were in pain. “Despite personal attachments, the Queen is still the commanding officer in charge of you as a Commander. And like Shadow Weaver always said, it is imperative to show no weakness.” Through it all she remained upright and rigid, not moving except to talk. “This is my fault. I will take the blame and the punishment.” She resolved.

“Oh Adora…” Bow said, his hand on his heart, and he looked like he was about to burst into tears. Everyone looked to have a similar expression on their face. 

“Adora… my mom would never actually do anything like that…she would never hurt me.”

Adora still didn’t move.

“But… she’s your superior officer!”

“Adora, I…” The Queen reached out, then hesitated. “I’m a mother before I am a Queen. I would never hurt Glimmer, or any of you.”

Adora didn’t know what to do with this new information. She looked confused, as though appalled that something could be this way. She waited as though she expected them to yell “sike” and send her to prison or worse. Angella swallowed.

“Glimmer, Bow, I think you ought to head to bed. General, you are dismissed. I shall have a talk with Adora.” Adora suddenly looked more nervous than before, and it was Abner who reached out to put a hand on her shoulder.

“It’s okay, she’s telling the truth, kid. She wouldn’t hurt you, or her daughter. That’s not how we do things here. You’re safe.” Then she walked off to investigate what on Etheria they were digging a grave for. Glimmer and Bow also retreated to bed, casting nervous glances over their shoulders. They still looked sad. Which left Adora, alone with Queen Angella who started walking out to the gardens. Adora had to unfreeze herself from the military stiffness she was in so she could follow as the day moon started to rise. Her mind was racing in panic; if this had happened in the horde, it meant big trouble.

“Comma--Your Majesty, if I misspoke--”

“No, Adora, it’s not that. You aren’t in trouble. It may have been that I was in the wrong.” They came to a courtyard with paved stone walkways through bunches of blooming flowers that climbed up the walls in a tangle of vines, covering the room wall to wall in flora. “We have very different experiences, even though you now live here with us. This all must be so different from what you grew up with.” 

Adora didn’t say anything--she should only answer if asked a question-- but she had to agree. Nothing felt familiar anymore, especially without the people she was close with. When she wasn’t learning a new food or experience, she was messing up some sort of etiquette or sitting in the wrong chair.

“I have heard before of this Shadow Weaver. She … raised you? In the horde?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Please, be at ease and speak freely.”

“I … was her ward. She found me as a baby and took me in. But she was also my superior officer.”

Angella sat down on a stone bench, gesturing Adora to follow. But she was too nervous to relax now, something that Angella didn’t miss.

“Adora I know you haven’t been here long, but I have grown fond of you. You have proven your trustworthy appeal, and you are a great presence on my daughter. It is my only hope that you feel comfortable and safe here. And that includes with me, even as a superior. The way that Shadow Weaver raised you, in the horde, was wrong. That is no way for a child to live. Even a child soldier.” 

This new information was a lot for Adora to take in, and she was distrusting of it at first. But the evidence was there, everything was different here and the rebels treated everyone much better than the horde did with its own soldiers. Her head started to feel light-- or maybe it was the exhaustion-- and she did find herself sitting down next to her Queen.

“Shadow Weaver taught me everything I know. How could I turn against all of it just because she was doing her job?”

“And her job… did that include punishing you when you got in trouble?” Adora nodded. Angella put a hand on her shoulder and Adora flinched at first. “She hurt you, didn’t she.”

It was like some flood-gate opened within her chest, and she realized she was filled with great emotional pain. A pain she couldn’t see, couldn’t locate, but felt it aching. Tears formed in her eyes and her breath hitched for a moment. Her body shook with the effort to hold it all in all of a sudden.

“It’s alright, Adora…” And that was the only push she needed for the sobs to wrack her body, and Angella pulled her into a hug and rubbed small circles in her back as she cried. She had been hurt. She had been paralyzed and electrocuted and burned with the magic of the Black Garnet and she always thought-- no, she knew-- that this was normal. She never thought it could be wrong. But who freezes time on a little kid just because they wet their bed? She hadn’t seen anything even remotely in the region of power and punishment of that range ever since she came to Bright Moon. And for how awful it was for her, Catra got it far more frequently and severe. And she had left her behind. She wished she had Catra here with her now, just to have one anchor in something familiar rather than feeling like she had gone to another planet where everything is strange. So many things overwhelmed her as she cried quietly into Angella’s shoulder. All the cadets learned from a young age to cry silently, and it was a habit she didn’t know how to grow out of. Eventually her cries quieted to soft hiccups and she pulled away to wipe her eyes. 

“I--I, I am-- I am so sorry! I don’t know what came over me,”

“You have nothing to apologize for.” Adora stood up and tried to fix up the mess she had made of herself while facing away. Angella stood and put a hand on her shoulder again. “You are safe now. And I will make sure that she never hurts you or uses you again. I understand that it may take a while to gain trust in adult figures for you. But... I hope I can be someone you can trust.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.” Adora said, saluting. “I will try to do better.”

“You should get some rest. The day moon is rising and you have been up all night. I will see you again for lunch with the others.” 

Adora took her leave and dutifully marched back into the castle. Abner approached as she was leaving.

“She is too young to have been through so much.” Angella said. “And what have you found, General?”

She held up the burnt, destroyed pan, now covered in dirt and weeds and shrugged.

“Yeah, I’m just as lost on this one as you.” she admitted. “But for Adora, I think I have a book you could borrow about helping kids who have been abused or gone through trauma. It helped us with Link.” Angella nodded.

“Yes, I am woefully unprepared for this child I have seemingly accidentally adopted. We will have to be patient.”

**Author's Note:**

> When you foster a child or teen who has been through trauma, they may exhibit very peculiar behaviors. They may hoard food for fear that it may be taken away. They may show signs of panic at slight inconveniences. They may try to bury their shame in the dead of night in the garden so that nobody knows that they made a mistake. You know. It is important to let them know frequently that they are not in trouble, so that they start to feel safe. It is better to reassure them than it is to know why they do things.


End file.
